Apr 10 2008
Digg Shouting - Can Everybody Please Shut Up?
Digg “shouting”, the act of sharing a link between Digg users, built the foundation of gaining Diggs. Once upon a time, the powerful Diggers with massive networks had a great deal of influence on submission popularity. A few even reached somewhat of a celebrity status. For those who managed to reach the “uber” pathetic levels of internet nerdom, their submissions were almost guaranteed to make the front page. Fifteen minutes of anonymous cyber-fame had never felt so good.
However, recently Digg changed their algorithm to make the sweatpants-clad super Diggers less powerful.
Votes from Digg friends were no longer worth as much as before. Now Kevin Rose’s submissions don’t pimp the system. The multitude of his diggs, garnered moslty from the sheer volume of man-crushes alone, will not rank as heavy as before.
I initially expected that incoming shouts would lighten up. I thought users would realize the changes and try a different method of gaining popularity. But to my amazement, shouts became even more aggressive, as people became more desperate to earn Diggs.
I have a good deal of “friends” online. Some I added because I know them personally. Some were because I was interested in their Diggs. And some I added just to get a diverse portfolio, hoping my submissions would be propagated through the system. But because of the algorithm change, people just don’t seem to be using DIGG shouting correctly.